Carbon nanotubes are a novel carbonaceous material having extremely small size and extremely large specific surface area. Carbon nanotubes have interesting and potentially useful electrical and mechanical properties, and have been widely used in various fields such as emitters, gas storage and separation, chemical sensors, and high strength composites.
The composite of carbon nanotubes and polymer can be formed by two methods. One method includes dispersing the carbon nanotubes into an organic solvent to form a carbon nanotube dispersion, mixing the carbon nanotube dispersion and a monomer solution, and polymerizing the monomer. However, the carbon nanotubes have poor dispersion in the organic solvent, which affects the uniformity of the carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube composite structure. Another method includes completely melting the polymer, and mixing the melted polymer and the carbon nanotubes. However, the carbon nanotubes have poor dispersion in the melted polymer because the melted polymer has greater viscosity. Thus, the uniformity of the carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube composite structure is still poor.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a method for making a carbon nanotube composite structure that can overcome the above-described shortcomings.